"Tsk tsk tsk, look who I've found. I thought the war would have claimed your life, that I would never have the chance to personally take my revenge!"
Riley sneered his gaze icy cold. The corners of his mouth curled up, revealing a row of sinister teeth.
"I never expected you, this little pest, to still be alive and hiding in this space. Not finding you for the past month was merely your stroke of luck!"
His words were filled with mockery and murderous intent.
The fury in Riley's eyes grew stronger. In his view, Lynn was nothing more than a newcomer to the Furnace a mere insignificant figure.
He believed that Lynn had only survived thus far due to sheer luck.
A seething hatred had been festering in his heart for a long time. Because of the war within the Furnace, he had missed the chance to personally strangle this wretched brat who had killed his brother. But now, fate had smiled upon him, granting him this opportunity once more!
"Even if I can't kill you in this space, even if I can't avenge my foolish brother, I will at least make you experience what it means to wish for death but be unable to die!"
Riley grinned viciously, his eyes brimming with bloodthirsty malice.
"I'll start by breaking every single bone in your body, then carve your flesh off piece by piece with a knife!"
His tone was chilling and ruthless as if he had already envisioned the torment he was about to inflict on Lynn to quench his burning hatred.
The apprentices standing behind Riley immediately sensed the hostility between the two. Without hesitation, they distanced themselves from the impending battle, moving further away.
Most apprentices were rational enough to avoid getting involved in a conflict like this. They didn't even have the desire to spectate.
And the moment those apprentices scattered, Colin and Lynn sprang into action!
"Binding Spell!"
With a slight movement of his foot, Colin sent tremors through the earth. The next moment, a giant hand woven from vines shot up from the ground, swiftly seizing Riley's legs.
"Hmm?"
Riley frowned slightly, his previously calm face flashing with disdain.
He knew that Lynn and Colin were allies, but he didn't care.
So what if he was bound? He smirked inwardly.
What could Lynn possibly do? He was just a rookie who had only recently joined the Furnace a mere first-level apprentice with no real threat.
Riley didn't consider himself to be in any danger at all. He thought Lynn should be fleeing by now.
After all, he was a wizard apprentice, not some foolish knight. What did it matter if his body was restrained? His spells were unaffected by such trivial constraints!
"Lightning Spear!"
Riley sneered as he muttered an incantation under his breath. With a wave of his hand, a terrifying bolt of lightning shot forth, crackling with devastating energy as it streaked directly toward Lynn.
This was an advanced zero-ring spell, powerful enough to tear Lynn to shreds. Although Lynn would revive due to the spatial anomaly, the agony he would endure would be far worse than death!
Riley's eyes gleamed with excitement as if he could already picture Lynn being electrocuted into a charred husk, only to revive in unbearable agony.
This was only the beginning of his revenge. Once Lynn was revived, he would burn him with fire, strip his flesh away piece by piece, and make him experience the true meaning of torment.
However, just as Riley was reveling in his own twisted satisfaction, his gaze suddenly froze his pupils widening in shock.
At the very moment, his lightning spear was about to strike, Lynn was casting a spell as well!
With barely any warning, in the blink of an eye, Lynn whispered a few words and a dense surge of negative energy condensed in the air.
A ghostly woman appeared, her long hair hanging loose, her eyeballs drooping from their sockets, her arms limp at her sides. She lunged at Riley!
"Impossible!"
Riley's heart skipped a beat. Wasn't Lynn just a first-level apprentice? How could he cast such a spell?
What shocked him even more was the sheer speed of Lynn's casting it was unbelievably fast, far beyond what an ordinary apprentice should be capable of!
Even if Riley had advanced to a second-level apprentice, he wouldn't be able to unleash an attack so swiftly!
"Enchanted artifact!"
Riley gritted his teeth and immediately activated a tattered magical item in his possession.
After all, they were all survivors from the battlefield. Most of their equipment had been heavily damaged, and the effects of their magic tools were greatly diminished.
But even so, Riley managed to block the ghostly attack with a battered light shield imbued with magic.
He barely fended off the assault, but in the next instant, Lynn's attacks surged toward him like a relentless tide.
Just as Riley tensed, he suddenly noticed a towering green treant emerging from the underbrush behind Lynn.
Standing over two meters tall, the treant was both massive and agile. Without any hesitation, it stepped in front of Lynn, taking the full brunt of the lightning spear.
But the treant didn't stop there. It immediately turned toward Riley and charged at him, its massive fists clenched tightly before hurling a devastating punch straight at Riley's chest!
"Damn it! Am I going insane?!"
Riley's eyes widened in horror as he stared at the monstrous treant, which bore down on him like a raging brown bear.
What he had thought was merely a tiny insect he could crush underfoot had suddenly turned into a ferocious beast ready to tear him apart.
"Thunder Shield!"
Without hesitation, Riley chanted another incantation. A massive shield of crackling lightning materialized in front of him, sending sparks flying as it intercepted the treant's punch.
However, just as he breathed a sigh of relief, Colin swung his arm once more. The ground trembled as a series of stone blades erupted from beneath Riley, slicing toward him in a deadly sweep.
"Damn it!"
A flicker of panic flashed through Riley's eyes. He had barely managed to fend off the treant's attack, only to be assaulted by Colin's stone blades. Trapped between two deadly threats, he found himself cornered.
At the same time, Lynn didn't let up. He raised both hands, unleashing a fireball and an ice arrow simultaneously. The flames roared, the frost howled, their combined forces weaving a web of death that bore down upon Riley.
Riley made a desperate choice he opted to tank Lynn's attack while focusing on defending against Colin and the treant. In his eyes, Colin posed a greater threat, and he believed he could endure Lynn's magic thanks to the spatial anomaly's revival effect.
Yet, his confidence and decision led him straight into a fatal trap.
"Lightning"
Just as Riley was about to cast another spell against Colin's stone blades, a sudden wave of icy dread washed over him. In the very next second, raging flames engulfed him!
"Aaargh!"
A piercing scream echoed through the space as the combined force of the ice arrow and fireball struck Riley's weakest point. Agonizing pain surged through his entire body as if he were being torn apart from the inside out.
Despite this, he still clung to the hope that the spatial anomaly would revive him so that he could recover and launch a counterattack.
But the revival never came. Instead, weakness spread through his limbs, and his vision blurred into darkness.
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